Chapter Text

Skid felt someone shake him gently awake.

"...Mama?" He asked blearily, his eyes blinking as he adjusted to the darkness of midnight.
His mother shushed him with a worried smile. "Yes, honey, it's me. I need you to be very quiet, okay?"

"Why?" He asked, rubbing his eyes as he got out of bed. If he was looking, he would've seen her grabbing his favorite clothes out of his drawers and packing them into her bag.
"We're... playing a game," She answers finally, sucking in her breath as she hears footsteps downstairs.

Lila crouches down to meet Skid's eyes. Her expression is serious, and she puts both her hands on his shoulders.
"We're going to be sneaking out, and everyone else wants to catch us." She glances at the door. "But we need to get outside without anyone getting us."

Skid grins, and he pumps his arms up. "Yes! No one is gonna see us! We'll be like ninjas! Or ghosts! Or ninja-ghosts!"
Her expression softens, and she pets his hair.
"I'm counting on it, okay?"

Standing up and facing the door, she takes a deep breath.

"Ready?" She looks down at him.
"Mhm," He nods, looking excited and determined.

She opens the door.

Together they manage to sneak through the hallways leading to the bedrooms, down the stairwell, past the dining hall and through most of the foyer with only a few close calls.

Lila was glad that he seemed to be taking their "game" very seriously, but she didn't want to let her guard down yet. The one entrance and exit had very few places to hide, and she still needed to take the car keys that she knew were always left in the decorative fruit bowl in the middle of the room.

"Can you hide by the door for me?" She asks, and he scrambles over to the main door as quietly as he can.
"And don't come out unless I tell you, okay?"
After watching him shuffle behind a particularly large vase, she steels herself and approaches the bowl.

Her hands are shaky as she looks through the plastic fruits, moving pears and apples away as she tried to find--
"Lila, darling, what do you think you're doing?"

She whips around quickly, and finds her husband smiling down at her from the top of the grand stairwell.
"D-Dear!" She bites her tongue to stop herself from screaming. "I was j-just... going out for a walk! Really, I just-"

"This late out?" He raises an unimpressed brow, and blows out some of the smoke from his cigarette.
"Darling, you know it's dangerous in this town, especially at night." He started to descend the stairs as he spoke, but kept his wolfish grin up all the while.

"Well, I wasn't planning on going far," She laughs nervously, using one hand behind her to continue fumbling around for the car keys. "I just th-hought that the stars looked so lovely out tonight, and I wa-anted to admire them from the yard..." She cursed herself for being unable to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Her husband laughs with a voice like red wine, and he lands on the floor level with her. She shrinks as he closes the distance between them, her unconvincing smile falling as her fear made itself known.

"Did you think I wouldn't know what you were planning?" He leans down to her with a growl, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Her knees buckle, but she grips onto the table behind her to keep herself upright.
"You won't survive a minute without me, darling. What are you thinking?" He coos with a stroke of her cheek. She bristles at the gentle contact.

"Where will you go? Who can you turn to, when all our family is right here? Could you even provide for yourself out there? Much less for..." His eyes glance up at the vase, pupils shimmering a brilliant cyan as he seems to stare straight at her son.

"--No!"
She smashes a hollow plastic apple into the side of his head. It shatters, shards digging into his cheek, and he recoils with an angered scream.

She finally grabs the keys and bolts, hastily grabbing her son's arm and throwing the door open. She has to block out the screaming from behind her, and the sound of more footsteps rushing down the stairs. He's asking her what just happened, but they can't stop now, they're so close-

"Mom, there's-!" A boy, older than hers but still too young to be here, yelps as she runs up to him and his mother, keys in hand.
"Do you have your things?" Lila pants, passing the keys over to the woman with reddish brown hair.
"-As much as I could manage," She replies with a grimace. Faintly, Lila hears the other boy express shock as he realizes that she'd brought her son with her, apparently recognizing him.

"He- He knows! He knew what we were planning, he was just toying with us and-" Lila tries not to sob, but the other woman doesn't entertain her.
"-And he'll be sorry he did, now get in the car!" She hisses, the car's engine coming to life.

Lila hurries to sit Skid down, trying and failing twice to click the seatbelt over him before she hands the buckle to him, and he manages to put it on himself.
Finally, she takes the passenger's seat in front and barely manages to stop herself from breaking down as her escape partner begins to drive them away.

It takes her a while to stop breathing as heavily, and a while longer for her to stop trembling. They drive in a confused silence for a good half hour, before Skid finally asks.
"...So, did we win?"

The boy beside him sputters in confusion.
"Win what, weirdo?! We just left our old families behi-"

"Yes, son. We did." Lila looks back at him with a tired nod, and smiles when he gives a cheer.

"What do you mean?" The other boy asks through gritted teeth. "What the hell is going o-"

"Lila," The other mother grumbles as a warning, grip tightening on the steering wheel. She jerks her head towards her son.
Lila looks at her, sighs, then shifts the way she’s seated so she can look at both boys.

"This wasn't exactly how we were hoping to tell you, but since we're here," She gives a tired, humorless laugh.
"Roy, Skid, your mother and I are... dating now!" She gives a little flourish, watching their expressions nervously.

Both boys scream at the same time.

"WHAT?!"

Chapter Text

Misc Scene (Carmen & Lila)

"You dye your hair?"

Carmen eyed how her partner's hair was starting to fade from black into a light shade of purple.

"Haha, yeah. M- He liked it when my hair was black like his and my son's." Lila replied, moving her hair behind her neck.

"He thought it made us look normal. Well, more normal than I'd normally look, anyways," She tried to smile like it's a fond memory, but it faded quickly the more she thought of him.

Carmen frowned.

"Well," She started, taking a seat on the bed beside Lila and examining her own hair.
"I think it's better this way. Purple and red look much better together than black and red." She gave her a sideways glance, a small smile on her face.

Lila looked a little surprised, but soon settled on an expression of fondness.

"...I think so too.”

Despite the premise of the fic being Carmen & Lila getting together, a majority of the focus would've been on Roy and Skid's points of view as they adjusted to reluctant brotherhood. There would have only been sparse scenes involving the moms together, since at the time I didn't actually care what they would be like together as much as what them being together would mean. This was one of the only scenes exploring that I included.

Torture* Scene (Lila, Skiddad & Skid)

Context: Lila would have been recaptured by the cult in Chapter 5 while trying to get her sons to safety. Skid believes he can reason with his father, so he returns to the house to try to talk to him. Roy and Carmen remain in hiding from the cult, and neither Lila nor Skid are willing to give them up.

Lila caught her breath, spitting to clear her mouth of the taste of iron.

She didn’t lift her head when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

[Skid’s Dad] sighed as though annoyed, then grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look up at him. She still didn’t say anything then, only glaring back coldly.

“Darling. You know, you really don’t have to make this so difficult,” He tsked, tilting her head to look at the cuts and bruises littering her face. “Just give us a street, a block, even- And we’ll be happy to forget anything even happened, dearest.”

“As if.” She snarled, and he just rolled his eyes as he let go of her head.

“Be like that, then. But before I let the others, hmm, continue their persuasion,” He made a light noise, like a suppressed laugh. “I think there’s someone here you’d like to see.”

The door opened, and her blood ran cold at the voice she heard.

“...Mom?”

Her head shot up and she watched in horror as her son approached her, his eyes wide with fear.

“What-?! No, you can’t- He’s- You wouldn’t!” Lila strained against her restraints, looking even more frightened than she did before they started torturing her. “He’s your son! You can’t!”

“Now, now. I’m not like you, woman. I wouldn’t put my boy in danger.” He hissed in reply, grabbing her son by the shoulder and pulling him away from her.

“No, he’s just here to see his dear mother… And to see what she’s letting happen to her, instead of just being honest. See, boy? Not telling the truth never does you any good.”

Her son gave her a look, frightened and pleading.

“You can stop this at any time. Just tell us where Carmen and the boy are, Lila.”

Just tell them, his expression seemed to beg. She didn’t want him to see her like this.

Her eyebrows knit together in anguish. Her voice was tight, and she dropped her head so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes. She gasped.

“Son, close your eyes.” 

And she hoped he could forgive her for being unable to stop the scream that was ripped out of her throat as it started again.

Unironically one of the things I was most excited to write for this AU. I love Lila. I also love the horrors.

Fight Scene (Roy, Unnamed Cultist & Carmen)

The teen flinched as he heard the sound of a blade meeting flesh, but felt no pain. He opened his eyes quickly.

He glanced up and-

"M-MOM?!"

Carmen was standing in front of him, wincing as a knife dug its way deeper into her forearm.

"We've seen quite a lot, these- shhhit- these past few days. And you," She hissed as she stood up tall, grabbing the knife by the handle with her uninjured arm. "don't get the privilege of being the last thing we see."

In one slick motion, she ripped the cultist's blade from out of her and carved a deep cash into their face.

"That's a fucking promise." She spat out as they recoiled in agony.

She sat there, breathing heavily with a blade in hand for a while, before, without turning, she called out,

"Reynold! Get me some gauze. Now."

He didn't even think to argue.

Roy handed her a roll of bandages, hesitant as though he were expecting to do more. She said nothing, wrapping up her injured arm in silence.

"You're still allowed to be mad at me."

He blinked, then looked at her with an absolutely baffled expression.

"What?" He asked, genuinely confused. The look on her face didn't change.

"You heard me. Even if I saved you, you can still be frustrated with me for the things I've said or done." She said coolly.

"I don't need your permission."

"But you have it anyways." She continued, using the still-bloody knife to cut the bandage short.

"Why are you saying this now?" He glared back at her, though he was still confused.

Her icy gaze softened.

"I know I'm not the kind of mother you wish I was. I'm not soft or sweet and when I say I want the best for you, I really do mean only the best."

He scoffed. Was this supposed to be an apology? Because if so, it wasn't a very good one.

"But you're still my son, and I care about you, Reynold. Even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes." She said, her voice gentler than before as she put her hand under his chin to make him look up at her. "I'm not like Lila, but that doesn't mean I don't care."

"You're your own person. You almost never listen and you're stubbornly independent, and I'm… proud of you, Roy."

I still don't know how to write these two and their relationship. They don't hate each other but there's a clear strain between them despite the fact that they both love each other. One of the main reasons I struggled to write this fic was because I wasn't as invested in them as characters as I ought to have been for someone writing a fic with them.